It’s been a bit since I did a regular post! I’ve been concentrating on getting the birthday blog posts up and going.
So let me pick up since the last post. Chase and I split an amazon gift card from Christmas and I got this:
Oh yes. It’s good.
And we got a lion hat for Luna. She hates it. But at least she enjoys it as a toy (she chases it around.)
So on January 13 was a one day anime con – ABC Winterfest Remix, which we’d never been to but thought we’d take Kevin as a replacement event for Southern Fried, since it’s not happening this year. So I was torn between wearing a few different costumes — TFA Leia was up there on the list since I was almost done with the new underdress, but then I got to thinking maybe Endor Leia instead? It’s been a loooong time since I’ve worn it – I’ve only worn it to one con/event and that was Dcon 2007.
It needed some updates though. The main thing I wanted to do was get it dyed a bit darker, which is something I’d had on my “to-do” list since 2007.
So, I tried, with what I had on hand….. it did not go well, I tried to do this outside in below freezing temps on a table and it was a mess LOL. I put in some dye remover to kinda “start over” – it removed some of the worst of it so I tried again once it had warmed up a bit – but I’ll get to that in a minute.
On January 7, mom, Ash and I went to see the Isabelle de Borchgrave exhibit at the Dixon! I almost forgot about it, but we managed to get there before it went away (last day was the 8th). It was pretty amazing. Here’s a few favs:
(Paper touching station! The urge to touch the actual dresses was CRAZY so I’m so glad they had this set up in the corner – you could touch all the different kinds of paper and materials she uses, and it really helped you get a better grasp of the construction.)
A whole room of Fortuny Delphos paper dresses!
I have all my pics in a gallery here, password is “dixon.”
(sorry guys, I had the wrong password up at first! correct password is “isabelle.”
Later that night we went to see The Greatest Showman again (3rd time), took Kevin this time and he loved it, too. And he got to open his Christmas present from Mema – VR goggles for your phone. He was being chased by IT in this one.
Chase found a Christmas present he forgot to give me LMAO
The Besame Snow White powder compact!! It’s so pretty!!
Monday after work I ran by Hobby Lobby and got the other dye I needed to redye my poncho PROPERLY. They also had Mccall’s on sale so
Wednesday it warmed up enough I could actually give it a go. Here’s my poncho laid out flat outside (after drying from the dye remover):
I loaded up bowls with my slightly diluted dye:
Then I just carefully poured each colour in place, dabbing them around with a paper towel.
It wasn’t perfect but…
I did get it a LITTLE darker. Otherwise it pretty much looked the same as the original version LOL
I would love to just start over from scratch on this – make a new poncho and spray paint the camo on. With this one there’s no point in trying since I have multiple layers of dye that won’t come off. The poncho itself wouldn’t be hard to remake tho.
A few other Endor Leia updates: reattached the bill to the donut a little straighter, took up the pants (they were too baggy), fixed the closure on the belt.
And then I started looking at the weather for ABC Winterfest and thought… I am going to freeze! So I started thinking of other things i could wear. Maybe Arwen? Couldn’t find the wig. But while looking for the wig I saw my mandalorian box and thought… why not? So I pulled all that out and went over it to see what it needed to be wearable.
The helmet needed a new helmet liner (old one got stolen for something else), the belt needed reassembled. The vest doesn’t quite fit like it used to but it was wearable. I spent Thursday night getting it ready to go, and decided I’d make a decision on which I’d wear Saturday morning.
And then…. Friday morning:
A few hours of sleet followed by a few hours of snow. I had to go to work during the worst of the sleet, and after sitting in the parking lot for a few hours, my car had a good 3-4 inches of snow and ice on it. Nana and Kristie had to bring me a scraper.
So it was a decent snow day for once, I didn’t get to have a snow day at all, worked my regular hours and went home. But ABC Winterfest was canceled, understandably. The roads were not in good shape. So now I didn’t have to worry about which costume to wear LOL
But since we had a decent snow I decided it was time to do something I’ve NEVER done… I put on a costume Saturday morning and we went out and took pics in the snow. I threw on the mando since I had it ready to go, and didn’t have to put a lot of makeup on.
Our fenced in backyard in the suburbs was not the ideal – I wish we could’ve gone to my parents house! – but I like how the shots turned out.
And by then the sun was out and the main roads were decent, so we ran down to Joanns, I had a list of things I needed… including some basics like thread, hook-and-eyes, etc.
I found out they carry the very rare WHITE RIT Dye:
It was actually pink but the bottle was so faded on the front you had to look at the sides to tell.
Fabric-wise, I ended up with these:
The black felt is for some needle-felting experimentation. The green vine print is a cotton – it’s for the lining of Kevin’s Peter Pan tunic, and my Tinkerbell dress. I guess I’m definitely doing Tinkerbell since I’ve bought fabric now. It SHOULDN’T be seen in mine but just in case I wanted it to be cute and green. I haven’t completely decided how I’m tackling the actual look of the dress yet.
The electric green is a very thin mesh… it was under a sign in the tulle section that said “4 yards for $4!” and I was like shoot I’m getting all of this for Tink even if I don’t use it. And then at the cutting table I discovered it had been put in the wrong spot and it was NOT on sale. But I went ahead and got 4 yards anyway and used the 50% off coupon I had for it. I do really like it, I want to use it in some way… and I may go back and buy more. I dunno.
Then since we were right next door we went to Toys R Us where I found multiple things I wanted but did not buy including:
I WANT ITTTTTTTTTTTT
I DID buy this:
They were blowing out these Infinity 3.0 starter sets, with the game and Anakin and Ahsoka figures for $2. I wanted the Ahsoka figure. So I bought it and I’m giving the rest to Kevin.
Anyway back to fabric. For Kevin’s Peter Pan I kinda want to do a sort-of Hook inspired thing with a tunic and shorts, using some rough, natural fabrics, maybe patchworked? I was looking in my fabric cabinet for something else and pulled out the first set of TFA Leia linen panels I tried to dye – they were really splotchy and gross looking, which is why I didn’t use them. But I tossed them in some dye remover…
After a few minutes I had at least a neutral grey as a starting point. I put it back in some apple green once it dry and I’m pretty happy with how the colour turned out — of course I don’t have a picture of that handy. But depending on what other fabrics I end up with I may go more saturated or darker. Waiting to see.
Sunday Chase and I decided to go for a walk… but it was still super cold and icy out… so we went to the mall to walk LOL
SO CUTE! No, I didn’t get either of them. We said NO BUYING ANYTHING. In fact we said NO GOING IN STORES but we did go in a few. And on our way out we went in Hot Topic and I caved. They had a pair of LILO sweatpants on clearance. Like red sweatpants with the white flowers on it like Lilo’s dress. So I bought that. And then they had the Stitch shawl I had wanted last year but didn’t get, it was on clearance too, so I got them both.
I am weeeeak we are supposed to be saving for a new house not buying stuff.
Also GOSH this mall has changed. The music/movie/geek store that’s been there since the beginning is now a Foot Locker š And they’re saying H&M wants the space the Disney store is in… if they close the Disney store I literally have no reason to ever go back. Except to walk when it’s cold. It’s so sad! I spent so much time at that mall when it opened and it was super cool back then… we had like a science store and a WB store and stuff.
Anyway. Here’s a few Sims tidbits…
Anakin just wandered into the bathroom, eating a sandwich, and talking about himself, while Padme is clearly otherwise occupied.
Typical.
Also, Padme had a baby girl. It wasn’t Anakin’s. It was Obi-Wan’s. Anakin didn’t know this was going on, and I was going to bring Obi-Wan over to the house to break the news… and my plan was for Anakin to get so angry that he becomes Darth Vader and moves out. But when Obi-Wan showed up, Anakin was out front, dancing with his dog (R2D2) and it was so cute I couldn’t do it. So I sent Obi-Wan home, and he took his and Padme’s daughter with him, so all is back to normal in the Padme/Anakin household.
Then Chase said, “Make a Micky Mouse family”, and I said I can’t make a Mickey Mouse family. But then I did.
They are the MAUS family.
Donald is my favourite. OOO GIRL LOOK AT THOSE LEGS
Anyway. I had hoped to get TFA Leia and ANH Leia both done this weekend but didn’t manage either. I DID get the front facing finished and sewn down on the neckline for TFA Leia.
Just have to hem it at this point.
I’m working late this week to take off Friday… going to try to get the basic stuff for Tink done – the dress structure mostly. Might also sit my butt on the couch for part of the day and play with needle felting.